Underworld (2003) Review

First-time director Len Wiseman cranks up the volume with a tale of vampires versus werewolves that is sure to delight genre fans and countless teenage boys.

Kate Beckinsale in Underworld (2003) (Courtesy of IMDB)

By his own admission, first-time director Len Wiseman's idol and inspiration is the king of the world himself, James Cameron. Burning with the same kind of ambition that helped Cameron make his mark in 1984 with Terminator, Wiseman is hell-bent on coming out of the gate with his own successful hybrid of the action and horror film genres.

Wiseman has followed Cameron's lead of fashioning a story around a steely-eyed female protagonist, in this case the leather-clad vampire assassin Selene (Kate Beckinsale), while his pal Kevin Grevioux (co-writer of the film's story) has a certain Arnold-like presence as a humanoid werewolf named Raze. In the end, however, Underworld is undone by a convoluted storyline and an unnecessarily long run time of 121 minutes.

Combining the theme of Romeo and Juliet with a whole lot of mumbo jumbo about viruses and genetic engineering, Underworld centers around the growing and forbidden attraction between Selene and Michael, a medical intern (Scott Speedman) who unwittingly triggers the uprising of a sewer-dwelling clan of werewolves know as Lycans.

When the Lycans ignore the protocol of their centuries-old battle with the vampires and open fire on humans during a botched attempt to kidnap Michael on a crowded subway platform, Selene delves into the incident and gradually uncovers an evil Lycan plot to initiate a new world order.

Thanks to the work of creature designer Patrick Tatopoulos, who collaborated with Wiseman during his art direction days on Stargate, Independence Day and Godzilla, the various transmutations of vampires and werewolves that appear in the film are nothing short of spectacular. It's one thing to pull off the illusion of prosthetic suits and animatronics in the heat of a furiously edited battle scene, but as the extended close-ups of a vampire elder (Bill Nighy) and a penultimate Lycan prove, the visual effects are top notch.

In fact, in the wake of the general disappointment over Ang Lee's Hulk and a summer overloaded with CGI effects, many will find it ironic that Wiseman is responsible several months later for a thoroughly convincing and reasonably proportioned angry green monster.

The other consistently successful element of Underworld is the look contributed by Academy Award nominated cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts (The Client, Howard's End). Shot almost entirely at night and mostly during Hungary's winter season, the film manages to be both glossy and stark, with very little color peaking through the lens. Pierce-Roberts takes advantage of Budapest's gothic architecture and the washed out hues of contrast lighting to create visuals that perfectly match the thumping thrash metal soundtrack.

There's no doubt Wiseman has promise as a visual stylist. Highlights include his use of clever fadeouts such as the transformation of a number radiating on Serene's laptop computer screen into an apartment door with the same number, or his decision to film the collision between Lycan leader Lucian (Michael Sheen) and Selene's sleek sports car from an uninterrupted top down camera point of view.

Speedman and Beckinsale in Underworld (2003) (Courtesy of IMDB)

But to fulfill his promise, Wiseman needs a better script. When screenwriter Danny McBride's spec script went on the auction block at the beginning of 2002, it generated a tremendous amount of heat around Hollywood before Lakeshore Productions finally purchased it with the guarantee that Wiseman would direct. Whether or not creative executives had anything to do with the narrative's relentless emphasis of action over character development, the end result is a tale that is strangely disengaging, several impressive original set pieces notwithstanding.

Meanwhile, although the city of Budapest provides a stunning backdrop for gang warfare and its Hungarian origins are subtly referenced at one point by Beckinsale's character, it is populated on screen entirely by English-speaking people with British and American accents. Even the medical intern played by Speedman and his colleagues all speak English. Are we supposed to think this is some sort of American hospital facility abroad or is this simply part of an overall stylized filmmaking decision by Wiseman? It's never clear, just as it was in the William Hurt Russian police drama Gorky Park some twenty years earlier.

The closest the Hungarian locals come to making a noticeable appearance in the film is as part of a bored group of female vampire ingénues who are forever congregated on chairs and couches in the grandiose entranceway of Beckinsale's mansion. By the third or fourth time Selene traipses by this jaded looking bunch , it starts to look more and more like she is staying at a far flung outpost of Andres Balazs' Standard Hotels.

Before Terminator, James Cameron co-directed Piranha Part Two: The Spawn (1981) and made a well-received 12 minute short, Xenogenesis (1978). Assuming that Underworld is Wiseman's equivalent apprenticeship, it's worth keeping an eye out for his second effort since it will become clear at that point if he has what it takes to follow in a master storyteller's footsteps.